Filmmaking
Making of AT-AT day afternoon
Remember Patrick Boivin’s short film AT-AT day afternoon? Found through: My RSS Reader.
Christopher Nolan vs. M. Night Shyamalan
They were born within seven days of one another. Including their breakthrough films, they have directed six and seven movies, respectively, and each heavily contributed to the screenplays of their films. They both work on big budget studio pictures and yet are allowed unprecedented levels of creative control. FXRant compares and contrasts these two auteurs.
Behind the Wild Things
Director Spike Jonze reveals the secrets behind bringing his giant monsters to life. Found through: Alba’s Twitter Feed
In praise of the sci-fi corridor
Corridors make science-fiction believable, because they’re so utilitarian by nature – really they’re just a conduit to get from one (often overblown) set to another. So if any thought or love is put into one, if the production designer is smart enough to realise that corridors are the foundation on which larger sets are ‘sold’ [...]
Avatar Exclusive: Behind The Scenes (The Art of Performance Capture)
Go behind the scenes on the set of the new film Avatar and learn all about the art of performance capture. This revolutionary new technique is changing the way CGI characters are developed.
Weta behind-the-scenes Avatar
Found through: Alba’s Twitter feed
Whoosh!
Whoosh! – watch more funny videos A producer and her editor search for the perfect sound effect Found through: Alba’s Tumblr
F/X Master Steven Johnson
Visual effects master Steve Johnson launched a Youtube series called “Rubber Rules” few months back. There he intends to showcase 30 years vorth of experience in the visual effects buisness. His videos are short and give amazing insight into the history of practical and visual effects. Steven is now also on Twitter and you can [...]
The making of “Star Trek” – The Drilling Platform
What You See Isn’t Always What You Get
The many uses of ‘Green Screen’ also known as ‘ChromaKey.’ Found through: Browsing Youtube
Avatar’s VFX Master: Weta Digital’s Joe Letteri
Pretty cool interview with Weta’s Joe Letteri. Found through: Twitter search. Source: Thompson on Hollywood
Popular Mechanics Interview With James Cameron
Pretty nice and intimate interview with James Cameron on the process of making Avatar. Also make shure to check out The Science Behind James Cameron’s Avatar Found through: Seach on Twitter Source: Popular Mechanics
James Cameron – Abyss drowning
Rebecca Keegan, author of “The Futurist: The Life and Films of James Cameron” talks about James Camerons almost drowning on the set of The Abyss. Found through: Search on Tweetdeck Source: Slate V
Hollywood vs. New York
Four decades of celluloid New York annihilation distilled into one musical montage. Source: goodiebag.tv Found through: Alba’s Twitter feed
Lego Matrix Trinity Help
After around 440 hours of work, and just in time for the 10th anniversary of the original movie release, we are pleased to present to you our Lego version of the famous Bullet Time dodge scene from The Matrix. Lego Matrix Trinity Help Side by Side Comparison Lego Matrix Trinity Help Scene 12 Camera B [...]
VFX of 2012 – CGSociety
Almost everything was rendered through RenderMan, and since the scenes were during the day, with straight forward HDRI lighting. Each shot had thirty, forty or even more render passes. Nuke was used to composite. “We made extensive use of depth channels,” said Poe “and they also carried the world space and camera space coordinates of [...]
Distraxion – Short film
A short film about a tough night at the office. More info at distraxion.sternio.com Found through: Alba’s Twitter feed
Making of the CG for Star Wars (Episode IV)
(1977) The computer graphics for the first Star Wars film was created by Larry Cuba in the 1970s at the Electronic Visualization Laboratory (EVL) (at the time known as the Circle Graphics Habitat) at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Tim Burton Sits Down with Ray Harryhausen
Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Found through: Alba’s Twitter feed
Phil Tippett Animatics – Raptors in the Kitchen
Phil Tippetts animatics for the kitchen scene in Jurassic Park. Found through: fuck yeah vfx! Tumblr page
ARTIFICIAL PARADISE,INC.
ARTIFICIAL PARADISE,INC. from Jp Frenay on Vimeo. Artificial Paradise, Inc is an experimental film anticipating a future where a major corporation has developed an unique software, based on organic virtual reality, which holds all the lost memories of humankind. A user connects to this database of the forgotten…what is he searching for? Found through: Bananakin’s [...]
Hollywood Camera Work Free HD Green Screen Plates and Footage
So we decided to donate some of the interesting plates from Visual Effects For Directors to the community, so you can download them and practice keying, matchmoving, compositing, tracking, and much more! Found through: Scott Squires “Effects Corner”
Eric Durst – Visual Effects Designer / Supervisor
Demo reel of the visual effects work that Eric Durst have supervised. Found through: Alba’s Twitter feed
Visual Effects Supervisors Bag of Tricks
Visual effects supervisor Eric Alba gives full access to his bags of tricks. I am amazed of his candor showing the tools of his trade and how and why he uses them. This is a must to see for all vfx geeks out there. I for one am learning so much from his stuff on [...]
Supernatural Interview With Ivan Hayden – Visual Effects Supervisor
An Interview With Ivan Hayden The Visual Effects Supervisor Of Supernatural.
District 9 Interview: VFX Executive Producer – Vancouver Film School (VFS)
District 9 Visual Effects Executive Producer Shawn Walsh, a Vancouver Film School graduate, discusses his role in creating the film’s groundbreaking visual effects.
Wide Screen VS Full Screen
Found through: David Stripinis twitter feed
Dykstra Talks Inglourious Basterds
… there was no three-dimensional stuff for this movie. We did everything in traditional composite and overlay approach. Now the trick is — and it’s the same issue that Quentin had with using “digital” for projection — he wanted to make sure there were no digital artifacts in the compositing, because the image had to [...]
District 9 Origins – Alive In Joburg HD
Short Film by Neill Blomkamp Director of “District 9″
Dangerous Days – Making Of Blade Runner – Beyond the Window: Visual effects
Part I Part II Part III Found through: fuck yeah vfx! Tumblr page
Old scans of behind-the-scenes pics from Star Trek: TNG, DS9 & Voyager
Visual Effects Guru and Linkgiver Eric Alba has put up some amazing images from the set of Star Trek: TNG, DS9 & Voyager. Found through: Alba’s Twitter feed
District 9 – Interview – Trailer – Panel
Link: A Dozen Things You May Not Know About ‘District 9′ District 9 Trailer Comic-Con ’09: District 9 panel (part 1) Comic-Con ’09: District 9 panel (part 2) Comic-Con ’09: District 9 panel (part 3) Comic-Con ’09: District 9 panel (part 4)
EditQuette – Joy Moeller
Found through: Jeff Heusser’s (Neonmarg) Twitter feed
Alien Makers – Documentary
This period was a fantastic time in the film industry and I remember well the relaxed and thoughtful ways we all set about making the models under the guidance of Effects Supervisors Brian Johnson and Nick Allder. Ron Hone was the boss in the model shop, it was like a large family when we would [...]
THE ORIGINAL Scary ‘Mary Poppins’ Recut Trailer
The brillant and now classic recut of the Disney classic ‘Mary Poppins’. Made my Chris Rule and Nick Eckert. Found through: Surfing Youtube
Machu Picchu Post – 3d short movie
Machu Picchu Post is a short 3D film made at Supinfocom Arles in 2008 by Clement Crocq, Margaux Durand-Rival and Nicolas Novali.
Being loud without words – Pantomime Sequential Narrative
If executed well, this pantomime storytelling has the possibility of reaching a worldwide audience, giving every reader, regardless of language skills, the possibility of absorbing the story and its message. This is a perfect example of the medium’s power. Found through: Alba’s Twitter feed
‘The Nightshift’- Reveille buys format rights to Icelandic comedy
The show has a smart, ironic point of view, which we know will translate well in the U.S. Finally good news from Iceland and boy do we need them. Hollywoodreporter.com has reported that Reveille has bought the format rights to Næturvaktin (Nightshift) Icelands most successfull tv series to date. It’s great news for Icelandic filmmaking [...]
The Truth About 2K, 4K and The Future of Pixels
“Pixel” is an unfortunate term, because it has been hijacked. John Galt Excellent article attempting to de-mystifying the pixel and examining the range of digital formats available today. I have already printed it out and added to the “Crappy Literature Collection”. Found through: Ron Brinkmann’s Twitter feed
World Builder – Interview with Bruce Branit
How long did it take to produce the entire project? It was planned and pre-produced in about 4 weeks. The actual shoot was one long 16 hour day. we were shooting off single takes at one time and moving on because one day is all I had. The post on it was over the course [...]
Color Theory for Cinematographers
Written by: Isaac Botkin Source: Outside-Hollywood
An Open Letter From WATCHMEN Screenwriter David Hayter
Whether you love it or not we need more risky films like it Watchmen screenwriter David Hayter writes about his take on the movie.
Ridley Scott: Searchlab Lecture
Ridley Scott talks about his career, technique, and inspirations among many other insightful anecdotes from the past thirty years. The video has been broken up in four parts. Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4
CG World Covers Frank Miller’s The Spirit
You find the article on page 26.
Film Festival Secrets
Truly excellent book by Chris Holland. You can read the book online or buy it here. I recommend buying it to support Mr. Holland’s effort.
